


Winds of Change

by Mystralist



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Angst Loki, Avengers - Freeform, Infinity War, Loki - Freeform, M/M, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Stony - Freeform, Thor - Freeform, Thor has a Daughter, ThorLokiWedding, Thorki - Freeform, thanos - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-21
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-07-15 06:08:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 16,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16057130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mystralist/pseuds/Mystralist
Summary: It could have all been wonderful. Marrying Thor. Ruling Asgard together. Peaceful times ahead. But of course it was Loki's life and he just didn't seem to deserve a quiet happy time. Instead he is now here on Midgard, alone and bruised, back from the dead, a little baby girl in his arms. All because Thanos' snap caught the wrong people dead and the wrong people alive.--> The story is a continuation of my ff 'I now pronounce you...'--> It starts post Ragnarok, pre Infinity War, although we will get to Infinity War as the story continues. But my own version of Infinity War.





	1. Prologue: Welcome a new member to the team!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello lovelies <3!  
> Here it is now finally, after so many requests I decided to do a continuation of my last Thorki fan fiction. It starts off pretty much where we left it, the Hulk is loose on Midgard. Many of you wanted to see Tony's reaction to the wedding news, so I made this a prologue, I hope you like it :).
> 
> The story will get a lot darker and angsty as we continue, but let's start off merry and light <3!  
> As always, I appreciate your comments and feedback.  
> And now, enjoy :)!

### \- Prologue -

The Hulk was loose. Once again. 

The public opinion had turned severely on the big green guy ever since he went wild after Wanda had messed with Banners head. People had always be wary, but now they were terrified. Voices had grown louder the monster needed to be kept off the normal civilization, even killing him some found justified. 

If people would only know how. It’s not like all of America’s military forces hadn’t tried to blow the guy into little pieces several times.  
Obviously the government didn’t want people to know that they were incapable of killing it. So the official message had been the Hulk had been exiled from America, locked up in a save facility far away, location unknown. When in truth, they had not the foggiest idea where the beast even was.

That was, until Tony Stark had thrown a fit at Loki over his phone and had stopped his car in the middle of a busy highway. Bruce Banner in the backseat, already nervous being under cover so close to the very location he had gone wild the last time, lost his nerves altogether when people were shouting and honking and eventually police and helicopters drew in to check what the f*** was going on with Tony Stark’s car blocking one of New York’s most driven freeways.

What they found was an over expensive 2008 Audi R8 getting ripped in two and the Hulk appearing once again in all his fury.  
Police and also very quickly Ironman tried to contain the beast before he could harm people in the surrounding cars, but it took Thor and Loki appearing on the scene to contain the situation.

While Thor tried his best to keep the Hulk occupied with his Thunder strikes, Loki used his magic to get the surrounding cars with people out of the danger zone.  
Ironman had a hard time trying to communicate to the surrounding police not to shoot at the two gods and let them control the situation. Finally they stopped firing and Tony flew up to Thor who had just pushed the Hulk off the Freeway down unto a big storage facility and sent some thunder strikes after him.

‘Uuuuh, hey. Thunderman!’ Tony said, tipping Thor on the shoulder.

‘I’m sorry we are late.’ Thor said, still occuppied with firing down at the beast.

‘Yeah, listen, about the ‘we’ part. Is this Loki?’ Tony asked, pointing at the God of Mischief who was still clearing the area.

‘Yes, of course that’s Loki.’ Thor said.

‘Of course? Of course he says.’ Tony said, throwing his hand away as if he had not gotten an obvious joke. Then, quicker than Thor could react, Tony grabbed the God of Thunder by the shoulders and turned him towards him. ‘Listen. I know your brotherly love has won your better judgement over once more, and Loki and you are best buds again. But if you could forget your sentimental feelings for one tiny second: Do you remember what happened the last time Loki was let loose on humanity?’

‘That was ages ago.’ Thor said.

‘Well, I still remember it all too well. As does my PTSD.’

‘Loki was not himself back then.’

‘Do you even know what that means, ‘Loki being himself’? Because I don’t think you do.’

‘What is your point, Stark?’ Thor grew impatient.

In that moment the big green guy came back jumping up, roaring in madness at Thor with such intensity, Thor’s cape was flying in an almost horizontal line behind him and he squeezed his eyes shut.

‘This! This is my damn point!’ Tony shouted in Thor’s ear. ‘We have the Hulk out because of your goddamn brother!’

‘As I understand, we have the Hulk out because you stopped your car on a busy highway and started shouting at your phone.’ Thor replied, shielding his face.

‘Because reindeer games made up wild stories to provoke me! Like you two would get married, can you imagine?’

‘Of course I can. I offered marriage to him.’

‘YOU- YOU WHAT?’ Tony shouted, almost as loud as the Hulk was roaring.

The green guy had done enough chest beating apparently and came running towards Tony and Thor. The ground was shaking underneath their feet, but while Thor was getting into position to hold the approaching attack, Ironman’s white glowing eyes just kept being fixated on the God of Thunder. ‘You know, I’ve got to tell you, your Asgardian humor doesn’t go down well with me.’

‘Can we postpone this conversation?’ Thor replied annoyed, gesturing towards the Hulk.

‘You’re right.’ Ironman said, stepping in front of Thor, placing his feet far apart to have firm standing, spreading his arms and charging his chest core. It formed a huge bright energy ball that blasted towards Hulk just in time before he had reached them. It catapulted the beast backwards, making several backflips before he caught himself again.

‘The grown ups are talking, big guy, go play in the kids corner.’ Ironman said, flying up. The Hulk jumped off the ground, meaning to catch Stark mid flight, but Tony was prepared. Little holes opened up on the shoulders of his suit and shot what looked like tiny black marbles at the beast. They hit him on the stomach, stuck there like glue and started to push the Hulk away. Like mini rockets they made him fly backwards and as much as the Hulk tried to rip them off, his big coarse fingers were not able to get a grip on the sleek tiny marbles. 

The Hulk cried out in frustration as he grew smaller and smaller and eventually they saw him getting pushed down into the Hudson river.

‘That should give us a minute or two.’ Tony said, flying back down to land next to Thor.

At that moment also Loki appeared next to his brother, looking around, panting. ‘Midgardians all clear. Is it over already?’ he asked Thor.

‘No. No no no. Nothing’s over. Especially not this conversation.’ Stark said, holding up his hand and opening up his mask to reveal his face.

‘There is no big deal to it, Stark. Loki and I will seal our bond with marriage.’ Thor shrugged.

Tony’s eyes skipped from one brother to the other, trying to find the sign that would give away that this was just a very bad joke.  
‘Ok. Listen. I know you have no parents anymore to do this, so I will do their job right now and prevent them coming back from the dead to haunt you, by saying: Have you fucking lost your mind?’ he asked Thor in complete exasperation. 

‘Stark, listen-‘ Loki started, but Tony held a hand up. ‘Ah ah ah! You stay silent cray-cray, you seeped enough into Thor’ brain already.’

Loki kept silent, but couldn’t restrain himself from grinning.

‘Thor.’ Tony started again, grabbing his teammates shoulders hard. ‘Remember why the Avengers even formed in the first place? That’s right, to hinder Loki to subjugate earth, to prevent him to get a position of power here. Because we all agreed Loki on any kind of throne would do no one any good, except Loki’s already way too big ego.’

‘You are one to talk.’ Loki coughed.

‘What did I just say?’ Tony asked sharply towards Loki, who held up his hands and got back to grinning smugly.

‘So.’ he returned to Thor. ‘How can it be that you suddenly think it is a good idea to literally hand him a throne now on a silver plate by marrying him?’

‘Stark. You don’t understand. Loki had already ruled Asgard as Odin, and he did rather well. He is-‘ Thor started, but Tony cut him off. 

‘Even you cannot be that stupid, Thor! And also, what’s the story with Loki being naked in your bed? Are you telling me this… this… ‘bond’ is also… you know, the birds and the bees?’ 

‘Huh?’ Thor frowned in confusion. ‘We don’t have any bees in Asgard.’

‘It’s a metaphor for sex, Thor!’ Tony yelled impatient.

‘Oh, yes. Everything you can think of and more.’ Loki couldn’t help but throw in.

Tony winced as if he had just heard something painful. Then he put his index finger and thumb in the crease of his eyes and closed them hard, trying to wrap his head around what he had just heard.  
‘Thor. Do you want me to call Jane?’ he finally said after a few moments in desperation. ‘I’m a good matchmaker, I am. If she needs something more… earthly to be convinced, I can throw a villa in or two for you. Or I could call up any girl on my old playboy list. The list even contains ratings, so you would know exactly what you get. There are lots of girls out there for you to, you know, sow your wild oats.’

‘Oats?’ Thor asked confused.

‘Another metaphor for sex.’ Loki chimed in. It was clear he was enjoying this way more than he should.

‘Oh. No. Stark, please stop.’ Thor said serious. ‘This is no joke. I’m not crazy, I don’t miss Jane and I don’t want to... uh… have wild oat sex with girls. I understand you Midgardians with your limited understanding of life and the universe have maybe a hard time understanding that, but Loki and me are meant to be together, always have. I know what I’m doing, and you need to trust me.’

Tony looked intensely at Thor, trying to find in his eyes something to reassure him, to make him understand.

‘I really hate to interrupt this really entertaining conversation once again, but our favourite god smasher comes back.’ Loki said, nodding towards a little green figure in the distance, growing bigger by the second.

‘Loki, it is your turn now.’ Thor said.

Loki glanced at his brother. ‘Do I really have to?’

‘You promised. It is partly your doing the Hulk is loose, so now go fix it.’ Thor reinforced. ‘You are being watched.’ he added, nodding towards Tony.

Loki sighed. ‘Fine.’

The God of Mischief started shining bright green, his black hair turned red, his green and golden armor into black tight garments, his size shrunk.  
Natasha Romanoff was staring now back at them, shaking her hair off her face. ‘You owe me one.’ And with that Natasha ran away, forming an ‘O’ with her hands in front of her mouth and shouted ‘HEY, BIG GUY! OVER HERE! COME ON, THE SUN IS GETTING REAL LOW!’ 

The Hulk, who at this point had reached Thor and Tony again and was just about to do some good old Hulk-smashing, looked around and as he recognized Natasha, his arms fell down to the sides of his body and his face grew soft. As if he had forgotten Thor and Tony were standing there, he just turned his back to them and was following the running Natasha, smashing some abandoned cars on the way.

‘See?’ Thor grinned towards Tony. ‘He is a good guy.’

‘You really think Loki shaking Romanoffs butt to lure the Hulk away is enough to convince me?’ Tony asked with raised eyebrows.

‘Well,’ Thor shrugged, ‘it’s a start.’

 

### \- Prologue end -

### 


	2. After the Snap

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello peeps, chapter 1 is here!  
> Well it is depicted as chapter 2 here, so let's stick to that to avoid confusion.  
> Part of the chapter is the present, the other part is a flashback of the past.  
> I originally did not want to include the wedding, but as many of you said they would love to read about it, I put it in for you <3.  
> Little side notes:  
> \- I will put Loki and yew trees together a lot. Yew trees stand for death and rebirths and used to be seen as the portal to the underworld. Which seems very fitting with Loki and his theme in this story.  
> \- I do know Valkyrie's name is Brunhilde. The thing is, Brunhilde is an ancient German name (I am German) and where I'm from this name is considered terrible. Not in its meaning obviously, but it is just not pretty. Like if you would be called Brunhilde in Germany, you would be made fun of. No one would do this to their child... so, I refuse to call a cool character like that Brunhilde, I will mostly refer to her as Valkyrie. Please don't be offended if you like the name Brunhilde, that's totally fine of course. Just I personally cannot stand it and connect it to old German grandma's (again no offence).

#####  \- Now - 

It had finally stopped raining. For now. By the look of the dark low clouds hovering threateningly over the country, Loki doubted it would take long before the downpour would start once again. He wasn’t sure when he had last seen the sun. Which was ironic in a sense, given the last words he had said to Thor. The sun will shine on us again.  
Not anytime soon though, apparently.

The God of Mischief was sitting below a thick old yew tree, its branches swinging forebodingly as a cold wind announced a new thunderstorm coming in. Loki had no idea if his brother had anything to do with it. He guessed he had. Thor was upset. How could he not be?  
The entire Universe was weeping for it had lost half of its live. And it was all his fault. He felt it with every breath he took. The crushing guilt that was pressing down on him. He hated and despised this feeling most of all of them and had been proud to outrun it so long in the past. But these things had a way to catch up with you eventually. Not even magic could jinx it away Not even a god could order it to disappear. Sentiment.

‘Excuse me, is this your daughter?’ he suddenly heard a voice and he startled out of his thoughts.  
A young woman was standing in front of him, smiling cautiously and pointing to a little girl playing in the sand.

‘… n-no. I’m her uncle.’ Loki said quickly. The word ‘daughter had sent a shiver of panic down his spine.

‘What’s her name?’ the woman asked.

‘Lyn.’

‘What a pretty name. How old is she?’

He didn’t know that. ‘… two.’ he said, hoping he wasn’t completely off with his estimation.

The woman nodded smilingly, so he was guessing he did well.  
‘She is a really smart one. My boy enjoys a lot playing with her here. Hopefully we see her around in the future.’ Then the woman called her son and took him by his little hand. ‘Have a nice day. And keep her save.’ the woman then said, waving at Loki.

Loki twisted his mouth in a weak attempt to smile and held up a hand.  
Keep her save.  
That was exactly what Selvig had said the day he had given the girl to him. Damn him. Loki should have never agreed to this. What in the nine realms had he been thinking? He couldn’t even take care of himself and now he was supposed to take care of a toddler?

‘Keep save’ had become a common add-on when saying good bye to people since the snap (that’s what Loki called it. The Midgardian’s called it all kinds of different names, the one he heard most was judgement day, or day of reckoning.)

As soon as the woman and her child were out of sight, Loki dropped his magic and wiped away the little sweat glistening on his forehead. The man who had just looked like a normal person sitting there watching his child on the playground now looked like a beaten up drug addict.  
His pale skin was showing deep purple bruises, the white of his eyes disturbed by red branches, the deep dark circles under his eyes were frightening. And his neck. He couldn’t even look at it. He tried to hide most of these injuries with long sleeved clothes and scarves. His magic was weak. He could perform illusions for a short amount of time, to appear normal. But it cost him a huge amount of energy.

Lyn came toddling towards him, a proud smile on her face and glistening eyes.  
She held out her little chubby hand in which she had collected leaves that had fallen from the different trees on the playground.  
‘Well done.’ Loki smiled warmly. ‘What do you want to do with them?’ he asked.

The girl put them into Loki’s hand, sat down in the grass and started to pick the leaves out of his palm one by one and arranged them on the ground next to each other.  
Then, when she was done, she pointed at them and looked at Loki excitedly, waiting for him to compliment her on what she had done.  
‘Good job, kiddo.’ he chuckled and ruffled her wild curls. She squeaked in delight and clapped, applauding herself. 

The God of Mischief shook his head, grinning. He had no idea what she arranged the leaves for, he didn’t know anything about children. The girl also didn’t talk a single word and, compared to other kids on the playground her age, that didn’t seem to be quite normal. But she was bright and intelligent and understood everything she was told. 

And every time Loki would think about giving her to some kind of human infant shelter or orphanage, he would look at her blonde hair, at her bright blue eyes, her pronounced chin and see Thor all over again. He could not let her down.

 

##### \- Then -

The sun stood high on Asgard’s skies this Friday morning and the entire city was already filled with merry chattering and singing. The ancient statues throughout Asgard were decorated with flowers and colourful bands, the pubs were already open and filled with people.  
Carriages were made ready, guards in their golden shining armors were patrolling the streets carrying their kingdom coloured flags.  
A buzzing excitement hung in the air and people were eager to celebrate and be merry after the long times of tumult and disruption. This day was to unite Asgard and the nine worlds once more underneath Odin’s blood. A new king was finally to be crowned. Well, two kings for that matter.  
The people already sang songs about this day that had barely even started.

The only one untouched by the excitement seemed to be Loki. With a stony expression, he glanced out of his chamber windows down to the castle grounds and the city. A lot of people had already gathered near Yggdrasil to have a good spot when the ceremony started.  
Although Loki doubted they would last that long, given the alcohol level they had partially reached already.

The God of Mischief swallowed hard and licked his lips as the door opened. ‘I told you to go away.’ Loki hissed and turned around quickly. He halted when he saw Thor standing there, a wide grin appearing on his face. ‘Now I now why the maid was running past me crying.’

‘Hmpf. She was annoying.’ Loki shrugged, turning his back on his brother again. ‘What is it?’ 

‘Well, as you told the maid to go to Hel, I was just wondering how you plan to get ready.’ Thor said casually.

‘I’m perfectly able to get dressed myself.’ Loki replied sharply.

‘Might be difficult with this armor. I know I wouldn’t manage with mine.’ Thor said calmly, gesturing to the silver and green armor costume lying on the bed, glistening in the sun. Loki glanced at it and sneered.

‘Silver. Why did it have to be silver?’ he asked.

Thor sighed. ‘Don’t start this again. You agreed.’

‘I have. That doesn’t mean I like it.’ Loki responded.

Thor came closer. ‘Someone is in a foul mood. You would think on our wedding day you would spill over with joy and happiness.’ 

The God of Mischief looked at his brother warningly. But Thor didn’t get intimidated and ignored the vile look. He lifted his hand and placed it on Loki’s neck, caressing it with his thumb. Loki’s expression remained icy, but he closed his eyes to Thor’s touch and started breathing a bit easier.  
When Thor saw Loki allowed his comforting, he came closer to rest his forehead against his, looking at Loki’s closed eyelids in understanding.  
‘Don’t be afraid.’ he whispered.

‘I’m not afraid.’ Loki said immediately.

‘You are.’

Loki’s eyes flew open, glaring right back into Thor’s. ‘And why would that be?’ he asked provocatively.

‘Because you think people will not approve of you. And of this wedding.’

‘Nonsense.’

‘Is it?’

‘As if I would care.’

‘You do. Even though you have always tried your best not to show it.’

Loki drew his head back, his eyes never leaving his brother’s. ‘And how come you are so confident of the whole thing?’

Thor shrugged, then grinned.

His brother sighed in frustration. ‘Sometimes you can be so incredibly…’

‘Positive?’ Thor asked.

‘Simple.’ Loki corrected annoyed.

‘And you overthink.’

‘Something you are definitely not capable of.’ Loki shot back.

Thor shook his head, stepping closer again. ‘Loki. It will be all fine. The people are excited about the wedding, about Asgard having even two kings again this time.’

‘They are excited about everything that gives them an excuse to get drunk. That doesn’t mean anything.’

‘Well, if you remember, they acted quite differently when they thought I was marrying Jane.’ Thor remarked.

‘At least that was a woman and could have produced you an heir.’

‘Well…’ Thor’s eyebrows rose high and he looked at Loki suggestively.

‘You cannot be serious.’ Loki said, eyebrows just as high as Thor’s. 

‘All I’m saying is, you can indeed produce-‘ Thor started, but Loki wouldn’t let him finish.

‘I can produce a nice big purple bruise on your last remaining eye if you keep talking.’

The door opened and put an end to the topic. Both princes turned around, Loki already opening his mouth, again expecting the whiny maid he had just sent away.  
But instead a dark skinned muscular woman walked in, her black hair in a high ponytail, carrying a glass of wine in her hand.

‘Oh, did we upgrade from Whiskey to wine?’ Loki asked mockingly.

‘I heard it makes you look more classy.’ Valkyrie said in a slight slur, holding up her wine glass as to a toast before taking a deep gulp. ‘To the groom and… groom!’

Loki turned to Thor, arms crossing in front of his chest. ‘What is she doing here?’

‘I told her to come and help you get dressed.’ Thor said, trying to sound cheerful.

‘Absolutely not.’ Loki said.

‘Absolutely not!’ Valkyrie agreed, holding up a finger. ‘You told me we would have a drink or two to ring in the wedding.’

‘That you can do, whilst helping Loki get in his wedding armor.’ Thor encouraged, placing a big bottle of champagne on the table.

Valkyrie looked at the champagne bottle, then at Loki as she tried to figure out if this was worth it. Apparently she came to the conclusion that it was, because she set her glass aside and bent her neck left and right as if she would get ready for a fight. ‘Alright, let’s do this, Lucky.’

The she-warrior had never let go of giving Loki ridiculous nicknames, ever since she found out it bothered him.

Loki shot a look that could kill to Thor. ‘I hate you.’

‘Awww, and I love you too.’ Thor replied grinning, notching Loki’s cheek and then jumping quickly away to not get hit by a dagger Loki suddenly slashed towards him.  
‘Come on, I needed someone who would not run away crying because you have your Diva moments and would actually be strong enough to keep you a bit in check. ‘ he explained as he quickly made his way to the door.  
‘I expect you down in 20 minutes.’ he called, closing the door behind him. Just in time, as he heard a loud thump only a second later and saw a sharp silver tip had cut through the wood of the door. 

Apparently Loki had thrown the dagger after him.

 

\--

 

Thor’s armor clunked heavy as he was making his way down to the reception room where only the closest members and friends of the family were gathered, waiting for the wedding to begin. Some soft music was playing in the background and servants offered food and drinks to the merrily chatting guests.  
Of course all the gods of Asgard were there, as well as the leaders of the other realms that were in good and supportive standing with Asgard.  
And among all those gods and leaders a little group of three people stuck out …

‘There he is! Thor!’ Tony called, waving Thor over.

‘My friends!’ the God of Thunder smiled, spreading his arms in an embracing gesture and walked up to them.  
‘I thank you for coming and attending our wedding.’ he continued, padding first Tony on the shoulder, then Steve.

Steve nodded tense, looking uncomfortably around, his eyes eventually resting on Tony who answered his stare with the same intensity.

‘Oh guys please, don’t tell me you are still not talking!’ Thor said, frowning.

‘We are talking. See? We talk! Don’t we talk, Rogers?’ Tony responded, almost aggressively.

‘We are literal chatter boxes.’ Steve responded sarcastically, glancing at Stark derogatorily.

‘At some point you have to explain to me in detail what the fighting between you two was about.’ Thor said, still not quite understanding what had happened after he had left Midgard when they had defeated Ultron. The Avengers had called it the ‘Civil War’ among them and even though the basic tone seemed to be back to ok-ish between most of them, Steve and Tony seemed far from having recovered from it.

Thor was surprised they would even accept the invitation. And then again, part of the reason they had was probably that Thor had conveniently forgotten to inform them that the other one was coming.

‘And this is the Spider kid I was talking to on the electronic communication device?’ Thor asked, looking down at a skinny pale teenage boy with wide brown eyes, staring up at him.

‘Yes, this is Peter. Peter? Thor.’ Tony said.

‘It is such a pleasure to finally meet you, Mr Thor!’ Peter exclaimed as if he had just been waiting to finally get to speak. He took Thor’s hand and shook it enthusiastically.

Thor chuckled, ruffling over Peter’s hair. ‘Nice to meet you, too. I have heard you are a valuable addition to our team.’

‘Yeah, he is not really an Avenger. Yet. He is fifteen. You know. That is basically still an infant, in human years. So I also highly doubt it was the right thing bringing him here to an event where your brother, the God of Mischief with very questionable morals, will be crowned a king and thus hold a position of power.’ Tony said with a disapproving voice to Thor.  
Ever since he had learned of their wedding, he wouldn’t miss any opportunity to voice his opinion on it to Thor.

‘Oh, look who acts like he finally learned what responsibility means.’ Steve muttered.

Tony turned on his former friend. ‘Oh, because helping a criminal escape the consequences of his live long actions is what you consider responsible, isn’t it?’

‘You just act all fatherly because you don’t want to piss off the kid’s aunt.’ Steve shot back, not picking up on Tony’s remark.

‘Well, she is his legal guardian.’ Tony said.

‘And further apparently extremely hot.’ Steve added.

‘What does that have to do with anything?’

‘Because we all know you would never do anything that would potentially close attractive legs for you.’

Tony stepped really close to Steve, looking up at him with murderous eyes.  
‘The old Steve Rogers would warn you to mind your ‘language’.’ he hissed.

‘Umm, you guys know I can hear all of this, right? Please stop dragging aunt May into this.’ Peter said weakly in the background.

But before anyone could say any more, Thor deliberately stepped between the two squabblers and pushed them apart. ‘Friends! This is a merry gathering to set a new strengthening milestone for Asgard’s future. Please, could you forget your human grudges for today and take them out back on Midgard where they belong?’  
After looking back and forth at both of them warningly, Tony and Steve cleared their throats and nodded, avoiding each other’s eyes.

‘Thank you.’ Thor concluded. ‘Now, where is Banner?’

‘Didn’t want to be a threat to the wedding. You know, after his latest episode in my car.’ Tony said.

‘Natasha?’

‘Stayed with him.’

Thor nodded in understanding. 

‘The wedding will start shortly. We are just waiting for Loki to attend the reception. I will get you some drinks to… relax the tension a little bit.’ Thor said and ordered some servants to bring over their sweetest mead.

Steve and Tony took two heavy mugs, but just as Peter was reaching for one with sparkly eyes too, Tony shoved an Orange juice box in his hands instead.

‘Mr. Stark, for real?’ Peter said in dismay.

‘I don’t know what you are complaining about, this is a 100% organic Whole Foods Orange Juice, no pesticides or artificial flavours. So show some gratitude. Tse, kids these days.’ Tony said eye rolling towards Thor.

Thor just wanted to come to the Spider kid’s aid, but a sudden turning of heads and stopping of talk made him look up and he saw Loki stepping into the room, a swirl of silver and green and smug looks.

His lips twitched and his eyes grew soft. ‘There he is.’

##### \- Flashback end –


	3. Forever and a Day

#####  \- Now – 

Loki had underestimated the challenge of being a teacher. And he suddenly wished he could ask Frigga about magic and how she had taught him when he was a child. As long as he could remember, he would practice magic with his mother and it was so naturally a part of him that he couldn’t remember how it had all started. How Frigga sparked it in him. 

This would maybe help him to now spark it in Lyn. And then she could help him to maybe release what he needed so much. His hand was grabbing unto a piece of fine noble cloth in his pocket. The only reminder of the happiest day of his life. That and...

Loki pulled his hand out again, looking at what looked like a tattoo around his ring finger. It seemed like a lifetime ago.

Sighing in frustration, he skipped through yet another book before putting it down and placing it back into the shelf. He should have known that a Midgardian library was probably not the place to find anything useful about ancient magic. But he was desperate. And he had to try something.

His eyes wandered over to Lyn. She was playing in the kid corner of the library, trying to build a tower with some blocks with other kids.

‘Soup?’ a voice asked next to him. He turned and saw an older woman with a warm smile offering him a bowl of steaming soup. He accepted gladly.  
‘Do you need shelter for the night?’ she then asked.

‘N-no. We have somewhere to stay.’ Loki answered and the woman nodded and walked away, approaching other people, offering food and shelter. 

Loki’s face grew stern when he took in the amount of people lingering in the library. Libraries had become one of the main places where people gathered these days. The public libraries were where free food was given out two times a day. The soup was thin, but warm and the best most people here could get. People also stayed there for shelter during the day, to pass the time reading, talking to one another, checking the blackboards for cheap things to buy or trade, for new shelter possibilities or when the next doctor would visit.

Loki and Lyn didn’t really need either. The God of Mischief would stay with his cousin in abandoned apartments or houses, changing them every other day to stay untraceable. It was tiring. And his magic was still too low to use properly. Which is why he had started to accept food of the humans. He was too weak to produce it on his own on a daily basis. And he needed his magic most still to create an illusion of himself not looking the half dead God he actually was. However, even with his magic on himself, he looked like a vagabound.  
His ripped black jeans and washed out black sweater didn’t look very impressive. Neither did the long thin black cape coat he wore on top, which was partially ripped at the edges. Sometimes his magic would falter and his skin would reveal all the cuts and bruises, which is whjy he made sure he was always covered. He even wore black fingerless gloves.

Loki slowly walked along the book isle which was labeled ‘Paganism’, his eyes skimming over the various book titles while drinking the soup.

The irrational tiny hope he had finding something useful was rooted in the fact that Odin back in his younger days was travelling Midgard a lot, cloaked as a traveler, spreading stories about himself and the Aeris among human kind. The arrogant showman. He also knew that Odin had left knowledge behind on Midgard.  
In what form he didn’t know. But books being the first thing coming to his mind and knowing Skandinavia was where he mostly dwelled, this was his best guess. A weak one, admittedly. And so far a failure.

After drinking half the soup, he went over to Lyn, kneeled down and handed her the rest of the liquid. Lyn took it with sparkling eyes and drank it up. Loki rustled her hair, smiling.

As he looked up, a big TV screen hanging from the ceiling was broadcasting news nonstop these days. Too many bad things happening, not enough people to keep up with everything. Utter chaos. And many people taking advantage of it. The crime rate around the globe has gone through the roof. People who escaped the snap were killed in thousand other ways now. The world was an utter mess. For past Loki it would have been rather enjoyable. But now all he could think about was how he could get this kid into safety. How he could connect to the remaining Avengers. How he could fix what he had caused.

The TV was on mute so Loki couldn’t hear what the reporter was saying, but pictures of a smoking burning Wakanda was showing. If only he could get them there. If only he could get his magic back and just beam them right over the ocean. If only…

‘Cute girl you got there.’

Loki looked up, staring into the face of a red faced man who had several teeth missing.

He didn’t answer, just pierced through the man’s eyes, his mouth curling up in anger.

‘She yours?’ the guy then asked.

Loki did not like the way he was looking at Lyn.

His darkening eyes flew over some other rundown looking men in the background, watching the situation attentively. This was a set up.  
Loki got slowly back to his feet, contemplating.

‘Hey, are you deaf? Or mute? Did someone cut your toungue out?’ the man laughed, gaining confidence and coming closer. The other men in the background shifted closer as well.

Placing himself deliberately in front of Lyn, Loki put out a hand and placed it on the chest of the approacher to stop him go further towards the child.  
‘Leave her alone.’ he said in a low hissing voice.

‘Oh, look!’ the guy called behind him cheerfully to his comrades. ‘He still does have his tongue.’

‘Indeed.’ Loki agreed and he opened his mouth wide, revealing a long slithering tongue which was splitted at the end in two. It was curling out towards the man, a long deep hiss escaped Loki’s mouth and his hand which was still placed on the man’s chest grabbed the clothes now hard so the guy couldn’t back away.

‘What the…?’ the man said confused, his fearful eyes following the movements of Loki’s tongue in disbelief. “W-What are you?’ the man asked in panic, leaning backwards, but the tongue curled around his neck all the same.

‘A god, you dull pathetic creature. And the moment you lay a hand on this girl, I will end you. Do you understand?' Loki threatened with another deep hiss, finally releasing the man, pushing him away carelessly.

The man stumbled backwards before bolting out of the library, looking back several times to make sure Loki didn’t follow him.  
The other guys looked after their friend in confusion. ‘What happened?’ Loki heard them wonder before they followed the man out of the building.

As soon as they were out of sight, Loki’s snake tongue illusion vanished and he gasped, quickly holding on to a shelf so he wouldn’t fall over.

This short interaction was enough to let sweat appear on Loki’s forehead and he wiped it away, breathing heavily.  
He felt a tucking on his leg and found Lyn standing next to him, looking up with worried big blue eyes.

‘All ok, kiddo.’ he breathed, mustering a smile.

But Lyn didn’t buy it and snuggled her little curly head at the God’s thigh, hugging it with her tiny arms.

Loki looked down at her with an undescribable expression on his face.

Yes. She is mine. , he found himself thinking. And he would raise Hel before he would let anything happen to her.

 

#####  \- Then – 

 

‘Stark. Captain.’ Loki nodded coldly, joining the little Avengers gathering.

Thor couldn’t contain a broad grin as he put a muscular arm around Loki’s shoulders to pull him closer.

‘Everyone, I believe you know my soon-to-be-husband.’ he said cheerfully.

‘You bet we have.’ Tony said gloomily, eying Loki with a mixture of distrust and sulking.

‘What’s with the face, Stark? I was expecting some sort of thank you. You know, after you set off that crazy beast of yours, that I then contained and locked back in Banners body.’ Loki smiled arrogantly.

‘You mean one good deed makes up for what you did to New York six years ago?’ Tony asked sharply.

‘What I did to New York or… to you?’ Loki asked in a playful voice. As Tony’s expression changed, Loki tilted his head in a played worried look. ‘Nightmares, is it? Panick attacks? Insomnia?’ he asked.

Tony’s hands flexed in upflaring anger, and only Steve putting a warning hand on his chest prevented him from tackling Loki to the ground. 

‘Friends, please!’ Thor interjected once more, giving Loki a warning glance. ‘What is the matter with all of you? Everyone wants to get at everyone’s throat these days.’

‘Oh I think everyone for sure wants to get at your brother’s throat.’ Steve murmured through gritted teeth.

‘I’m used to it.’ Loki flashed a dashing smile, as if he was feeding off the anger he was causing.

‘Loki. We talked about this.’ Thor said, his grip hardening on Loki’s shoulder and Loki flinched. ‘Argh-… yes, we did. Apologies, my friends. Chaos is my agent, mischief my patron. And old habits die hard. I hope we can settle our differences in the future.’ he then said with his velvet voice, bowing slightly. There was mockery in his voice, but he tried to make it sound earnest.

Steve nodded, still holding the warning hand on Tony’s chest.

‘Here.’ Loki then said, a long elegant glas appearing, one in each of his hands. They contained a bright green bubbly substance which emitted a sparkly silver steem. He handed them to Steve and Tony, who looked at the drinks suspiciously. ‘A marriage drink. To toast to a new future.’ Loki explained, but the other two didn’t look convinced.

‘He is not trying to poison you.’ Thor remarked.

‘Oh, isn’t he?’ Tony asked.

‘Believe me, Stark, of all the ways I thought of killing you. Poison would be the last.’ Loki said, casually.

Oddly enough, this remark seemed to convince Tony and he took the offering. Steve did, too.

Loki made another elegant hand movement and two more drinks appeared in his hands, for Thor and himself this time.

‘This is so cool!’ Peter suddenly exclaimed in a high pitched voice.

Loki looked around, puzzled for a moment, until he spotted the teenager half hidden behind Tony’s back.

‘Is that actual real magic that you are doing, Mr Loki?’ Peter asked with big puppy eyes.

Loki frowned, his eyes flying over this new person to the group. ‘Who is this?’ he asked.

‘Oh, that is the Spiderboy. Peter is it, right?’ Thor said.

Peter nodded shyly while still staring at Loki’s drinks. ‘I always wanted to be able to do magic. It is so much cooler then, you know, throwing nets and stuff.’ 

Loki seemed visibly confused by the open admiration. He regarded Peter sharply, trying to find the mockery in his words, but couldn’t seem to find anything in the open, shy face of the boy.  
He handed Thor his drink. ‘I’ll be waiting at Yggdrasil.’ he said to his brother and left the group.

‘D-Did I say something wrong?’ Peter asked, heartbroken.

Thor smiled warmly. ‘No, don’t worry. You just confused my dear brother with an honest compliment. He doesn’t get them much.’

 

\---

 

Loki stood at the massive stem of Yggdrasil. The holy tree to connect all the nine realms, the center of the cosmos. Its stem reached further down than any god has ever dwelled, its roots going as deep as Hel itself. 

Various mystical and dangerous creatures lived in its massive and twisted branches and barely any god ever went there. In the long gone Odin days, the old man would hold his governing assemblies underneath Yggdrasil's shade. It sure made him feel very important and powerful. Which is what Odin was mostly about.

Since his passing, the tree stood mostly alone and not connected to any traditions anymore. During Loki’s reign as Odin imposter, he had ordered to build a huge Frigga statute underneath Yggdrasil's massive rustling leaves. 

And so there she stood. Of course the huge marble statue didn’t even come close to Loki’s memory of his beautiful mother. The smile was cold, the eyes that looked down on her people were dead. Still, they came close enough. Loki had wanted her to stand there. At Yggdrasil, the center of the universe. Just as she had been the center of his. 

His silver armour clunked heavily as he slowly walked closer to the monument. Thor had suggested them marrying here. On a Friday, Frigga's Day. In front of her. It was the closest they could come to having a family member attend their marriage. And Frigga had been the goddess of love and marriage, after all. It couldn’t be possibly more fitting. Still, Loki hadn’t agreed right away.  
He was not sure why it felt almost eery marrying Thor here. Was he scared Frigga wouldn’t approve? Was she here, could she see him now?

Loki sighed deeply as he finally reached his mother’s statue. He looked up, meeting the dead white eyes of the most beautiful face he had ever seen. He couldn’t bare even look at this poor imitation of what used to be her.

He touched the ice cold marble to steady himself as guilt and shame washed over him. As it always did when he thought of her. 

And there it happened.  
A breeze, as cold as the stone he was touching, suddenly took on, rustling Yggdrasils branches and letting Loki’s black curls dance around his face.

And this wind carried a soft, familiar voice. It brushed along Loki’s face and found his ears.  
‘My son has finally found home.’ it whispered.

His eyes grew wide in surprise and disbelief, and he whirled around, expecting someone to stand right behind him. But no one was there. 

And as quick and sudden as the wind had appeared, it died down again and everything was calm once more.

 

\---

 

‘Are you ready?’ Thor interrupted the silence.

Loki’s eyes flew open. How long he had been kneeling under Yggdrasil he couldn’t have said, too deep had been his meditation. He slowly got up and turned to Thor.

‘Yes.’ he said in a untypical calm voice.

‘You wanted this before I give it to the Druid.’ Thor said, coming closer and offering the wedding band to Loki.

Loki smiled and took it, arranging it flat in both of his palms and looked at it as if he was looking for a stain that wasn’t there.

Thor frowned, and when the band suddenly began to slowly vibrate on Loki’s palms, he asked worried: ‘Loki… what are you doing?’

‘Just casting some spells.’ he said without breaking eye contact with the band.

‘I doubt this is what you are supposed to do.’ Thor sighed. ‘Loki. Is this some Mischief again?’

‘On the contrary.’

‘Well, what exactly do you do?’

‘I won’t tell you.’

Thor rolled his eyes. ‘Great. That is a great way to start off a marriage. Secrets.’

Loki grinned cockily and finally broke eye contact to look at Thor from the side. ‘You know me, brother. As long as I’m Loki, there will always be secrets.’

Thor shook his head. ‘You really cannot stop putting on your safety mask can you?’ he grinned.

His brother snorted offended at that remark, and handed the band back to Thor.  
‘I didn’t do anything harmful.’ he finally said.

‘I know you didn’t.’ Thor smiled. 

And as he took the band his fingers also closed around Loki’s hand and he pressed it.  
‘You will never get rid of me again, you know that?’ he asked.

Loki raised his eyebrows. ‘I made my peace with that a long time ago.’ he responded, pulling his hand back and with that Thor closer.  
He kissed him gently on the lips, breathing in the scent he knew so well.

Thor kissed him back, untypically soft and slow and ran his hand slowly up Loki’s arm until it arrived at Loki's neck.

After some more gentle kisses, Thor broke away, smiling. ‘Just a little taste for what's to come tonight. But now let me go to the Druid, he is waiting.’

Loki crossed his arms in front of his chest. ‘Huh. I didn’t know you could be a tease. You're learning.’ he said, almost proud.

Thor smiled even wider, then turned and left his brother alone with Yggdrasil again.

‘Thor.’ Loki called after a moment.

Thor turned around.

‘Do you think she would have approved?’ Loki couldn't help it, it just broke out of him. 

‘Go ask her. She’s always here.’ Thor answered, knowing immediately who he was talking about. He nodded towards Frigga’s statue.

Chuckling about Loki's confused face, he turned again and walked away.

 

\---

 

The wind was blowing mildly again as the wedding proceeded. Family, friends and the court were already seated in front of the Tree of Life while the common folk were trying to catch good glimpses from the further back.

Tony, Steve and Peter were given special seats in the front next to Heimdall who seemed to eye especially Tony during the whole ceremony critically. While Steve appeared calm but curious about what he saw, Peter looked like he had just been thrown into his favourite Disney movie and he couldn’t stop nudging Tony’s sleeve and pointing out all the things that excited him.

Thor and Loki didn’t notice any of that since their faces were turned towards each other as the Druid said the holy ceremonial words in an ancient Norse tongue. 

Thor’s armor shined golden and warm while Loki was a dashing silver and when the Druid asked them to take each other by the hands it seemed like two sides of the same coin were merging.

The two gods took each others hands and placed them on top of each other. The Druid then got out their marriage band and bound it firmly around their holding hands. While he did that he whispered some prayers, sealing them into the band and into their future. 

After the band was fully wrapped around, he got out six cords and started to wrap those one by one around the band. Each cord represented another pillar of a good and healthy marriage and the druid made sure to say the fitting prayers to each and every cord that sealed Loki’s and Thor’s fate to be united forever in this life.

After all the cords were placed, the Druid stepped back and spread his arms. Loki’s and Thor’s hands were now bound by so many cords in different colours that it looked like a rainbow ball had swallowed their hands.

‘Thor, God of Thunder, and Loki, God of Mischief.’ The old Druid said.  
‘As your hands are bound together now,  
so your lives and spirits are joined  
in a union of love and trust.  
Above you are the stars and below you is the earth.  
Like the stars your love should be  
a constant source of light,  
and like the earth,  
a firm foundation from which to grow.’

Thor smiled his widest, warmest smile at Loki as the Druid’s words filled the air. Loki didn’t smile, but his eyes never left Thor’s and he blinked a lot.

The Druid now placed an old ring made of an unknown element on top of their bound hands, then touched Thor’s shoulder and nodded. 

‘Oh. Yes.’ Thor snapped out of his happy grinning and cleared his throat, suddenly seeming nervous. He looked at his feet, gathering his thoughts, before meeting Loki’s eyes again.

‘Loki.’ he said with a surprising shaking voice.  
‘With this ring  
I give you my heart,  
I promise from this day forward,  
You shall never walk alone.  
May my heart always be your shelter,  
And my arms always be your home.  
For better, for worse.  
For richer, for poorer.  
In sickness, and in health.  
I am yours.  
And you are mine.  
Forever and a day.’

Now Thor had to blink away tears as he spoke the last words. Loki swallowed hard and he smiled at Thor as the Druid now placed a second ring next to the first, then touched Loki’s shoulder and nodded again.

Loki licked his dry lips nervously.  
‘Thor.’ he smiled, as if he could not believe what he was about to say.  
‘With this ring  
I promise to trust you and be honest with you.  
I promise to listen to you, respect you and support you.  
I promise to laugh and cry with you, to grow and bend with you.  
I promise to cherish every day we have together.  
Whatever life brings us.  
Riches or poverty,  
Health or illness.  
Good times or bad.  
I am yours.  
And you are mine.  
Forever and a day.’

He ended his vow with swallowing his tears hard, but his eyes grew watery nevertheless.

The Druid smiled only the slightest smile as he retracted his hand to place his palms now over the two rings, not touching them, just hovering.

He closed his eyes and said:

‘Now you will feel no rain,  
for each of you will be shelter for the other.’

The rings suddenly started to glow bright as the Druid said his ending words. He continued:

‘Now you will feel no cold,  
For each of you will be warmth to the other.’

The rings now started floating, circling around each other first slowly, then faster and faster until the only thing that could be seen was two rotating lights.

‘Now there is no more loneliness.  
Now you are two souls united in one life together.’

The light rings seemed to spark now like a tiny firework before vanishing completely. Only the sparks were left, raining slowly unto the corded hands.

Loki and Thor looked in awe at the last falling sparks. 

‘Go now. To your dwelling,  
To celebrate and officially enter the days of your marriage bond.  
Husband and husband.  
Forever and a day.’

And with this the cords loosened themselves as if by magic and fell off the God’s hands. Only the band remained, which the Druid carefully unwrapped and held it out for the married couple to take.

‘May your days be good and long upon Asgard and all of the nine realms.’ he smiled. Thor and Loki smiled in return and the guests were standing up now, clapping and cheering loudly. The somewhat holy athmosphere the place had held during the ceremony now broke and flutes and harves started to play and flower maidens showered the newly wed couple with flowers.

Loki and Thor looked both at their left ring finger where a mark had been imprinted and it was suddenly clear where the rings had gone. They hadn’t just vanished, they had left their invincible mark on their skin. In black, old Norse runes were circling the part where Midgardians would wear the wedding ring.

‘Well, I guess you would loose an actual ring anyways.’ Loki smirked as Thor chuckled, pulled Loki towards him and kissed him while the guests were still cheering and already started dancing.

If Loki would have to describe one perfect moment in his life, that one would have been it. 

Which is why it couldn’t last, of course.

At first he thought people had started to fire actual canons (wouldn’t be the first wedding Asgardians did that), but it became clear very quickly that that was not the case.

When people started screaming and a long huge shadow swallowed up all sunlight everyone started realising that something was wrong.

Thor and Loki looked around in alarm as people started running away, trying to find the source of the commotion.

Loki was the first to understand. When the huge shadow caster turned out to be the biggest battle space ship he had ever seen, he knew who had come. Who had finally caught up with him.

‘He’s here.’ he breathed as his wide green eyes looked up in terror.

‘Who?’ Thor asked, quickly ducking as some more explotions happened, caused by the firing spaceship. ‘Loki, what the Hel is going on? Who is this?’

Loki looked at Thor now, his face unreadable and his voice sounding as if it was not his own. ‘Thanos.’ he said. ‘Thanos has come.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey peeps.
> 
> sorry for taking so long for this chapter. Life got really busy and left me with little time to finally finish this chapter.  
> But behold, it is done :). And it is a bit longer than usual to make up for the long wait.
> 
> I initially did not intend to write out the actual wedding, but so many people wanted to read about it that I included it. So consider this a little sentimental, but unnecessary, add-on for the romantics among you. I'm not sure I did a good job, but oh well, there you go.
> 
> From now on, things will speed up a bit!
> 
> As always, I appreciate your feedback in the comments!
> 
> <3


	4. Betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello peeps,
> 
> the next chapter is here. As always, I hope you enjoy <3!

####  \- Now – 

It was getting dark and cold outside. 

Loki was glancing out of a little window, peeking through the blinds unto an empty backyard.  
He had just found a new place for Lyn and him to stay. Run-down apartments in poor city areas were his favourite pic. 

As the world was drowning in chaos and people missing left and right, the ones left behind soon found it incredibly easy to enrich themselves by breaking into now empty houses and buildings, stealing valuable things and money, plundering shops that were abandoned, breaking into and stealing cars. It was a zoo out there.

And since, of course, the high-end areas were particularly popular for these burglars, Loki would select areas no one would bother roaming, choosing apartments not facing the street, hidden from view.  
He had found them an old, shabby but strangely comfortable apartment on a top floor with smelly built in carpets and a lot of landscape pictures on the walls. 

Lyn came running towards him, pointing at the door, an excited glittering in her big eyes. Loki could hear it now, too. A scratching sound was coming from the front door.

He sighed. ‘Really?’

But as Lyn was hopping now from one foot to the other in joy, Loki nodded, defeated, and walked to the front door.  
As he opened it, a meowing black cat hurried inside, looking at them with her big beautiful eyes.

The little toddler girl squeeked and clapped her little chubby hands in delight as the animal started purring around her little legs.  
‘There you are again.’ Loki said in an annoyed tone, but smiling at the same time as he saw how happy Lyn was about their visitor.

Loki guessed an old couple had lived here, with a lot of cats. The couple evidently didn’t survive the snap, the cats did. And they kept showing up, trying to come into the apartment. Loki sushed them all away, not being overly fond of animals in general. But the black one was hard to intimidate and she kept being persistend. The fate had been sealed when Lyn had come to the door at one point and seen the pet. She had immediately fallen in love with it and signaled to Loki to let her in.  
Loki couldn’t argue with this begging, cute face and finally had opened the door to it. That was two days ago and the cat was a constant visitor since.

‘You want milk, cat?’ Loki asked and the cat meowed loudly as if she had understood.

Lyn took the milk bowl out of Loki’s hand a minute later and carried it catiously over to the pet, slowly setting it down and watched in awe as the cat bent down and drank the milk eagerly.

As the God of Mischief wanted to sit down next to Lyn, a piercing pain in his ribs made him stop and flinch. Grimacing in pain, he put a hand to where the pain was. He looked at Lyn. She was totally focused on the cat.  
‘I will be in the bathroom for a minute.’ he told the girl, trying to sound casual, and walked stiffly over to the bathroom, closing the door as he enterd.

Breathing sharply, he pulled down the blindes so no one would see the light of the candle he was lighting.  
In its light he groaned in pain as he slid off his long sleeve sweater and his scarf, deliberately not looking in the mirror.  
He needed to prepare himself before he did that. He closed his eyes, lifting his magic off of himself, sighing in relief to finally be able to put his guard down for a moment. He took some deep breaths before opening his eyes again and slowly meeting his own stare in the mirror.

It wasn't pretty. His eyes were bloodshot, his lips partially ruptured, his face and upper body covered in smaller and bigger cut wounds and bruises. Loki slowly ran his fingers over each and every one of them, softly pressing on them to see if they still hurt as much as before. They did. He was glad he couldn’t really see his upper back. He knew some major wounds were there. Another major one was the one which had just made him wince so hard. A massive purple-blue-green bruise was covering his left chest and ribs, the colours so deep and prominent it looked like Lyn had spilled finger paint on him.

Loki had been hoping that at least this one would get more bearable. But it didn't. On the contrary, it seemed to Loki the wound was becoming wider, stretching every day a little bit further up his chest.

He forced himself to look at his neck now. Lifting his chin, turning his head this way and that, he took in once more a blue-purple mess, colours not as striking as on his chest, but still deeply unsettling.  
Loki wondered, not for the first time, how his body could even still function and doubts creeped up in him again if he had made the right choice, the right deal. If he had not underestimated the consequences.

No ointment or medication could help heal these wounds. The only thing that had the power to heal them was….-  
Loki sighed deeply, running a delicate hand through his black curls. How was he ever going to fix himself?

‘That doesn’t look good.’

Loki jumped almost out of his skin and he whirled around, knives appearing in his palms, ready to attack.

‘Hey, hey, hey! Easy.’ The man behind Loki said, throwing up his hands in surrender.

His heard thundering against his ribs, Loki moved to the right so that the light of the candle would hit the intruder.  
‘Remember me?’ the man asked, eyebrows rising, his hands still up in front of his chest.

Loki now recognised the ice blue eyes, the high cheekbones, the ridiculously accurate shaved beard. ‘I do. Not too fondly though I must say.’ he said, exhaling deeply, sinking his knives.

‘Well, I can’t say I do either.’ Dr. Strange agreed.

Loki and the magician looked at each other for a moment, taking the other person in, standing way too close for their comfort in the little dimly lit bathroom.

‘Your signal was low.’ Dr Strange finally broke the silence.

‘I know.’ Loki said. ‘But I’m glad you found me.’

 

####  \- Then – 

 

‘He has come for the Tesseract.’ Loki said to make Thor understand, but as always his brother took two heartbeats longer to finally understand what this was, what this meant. 

Loki knew. Had always known his past would eventually catch up with him. But oh, how glorious it was to just pretend a little longer. To trust the treacherous lies happiness had whispered in his ear.

‘We have to stop him. He mustn’t hit Yggdrasil.’ Thor said, already building up his thunder aura around him, his eyes slowly turning bright blue.

'Thor, listen...' Loki tried, but Thor was already in battle-mode. ‘GUARDS! GUARDS! ASSEMBLE!’ Thor cried while a loud crashing thunder roared above the God, bringing in clouds, wind and rain.

‘Hey, 'assemble' is reserved for our team! I'm hurt!’ Tony’s voice complained and Loki saw Stark in his iron suit land next to Thor, closely followed by Captain America in his suit Spiderman, a black spider shining on his chest. Loki wondered what the boy could do.

‘Someone’s mad you didn’t invite them to your wedding?’ Tony askd Thor, pointing at the war ship above them.

‘No. This is Thanos.’ Thor answered.

‘Ah. Should I know who this is?’

‘An enemy we have to destroy.’ Thor replied.

‘I guess that’s enough information for now.’ Tony shrugged, his iron mask coming down, covering his face, the eyes lighting up. ‘Cap, you stay down.’ he said.  
‘What, why?’ Steve asked exasperated.

‘Because this is a bit too big for you. Wait until I’m back.’ And with that Tony shot off into the sky towards the Asgardian castle.

‘What the hell is he doing?’ Steve asked confused.

‘I don’t know. But we don’t have time for this now. Stark was right. Steve, you stay behind for now. You don’t have your shield.’ Thor said, planting his feet firmly on the ground before jumping up.

Steve's arms flew up in annoyance and defeat, like he couldn't believe what he was hearing.

‘I’ll help you, Mr. Thor!’ Peter called and Loki saw nets flying out of his wrists as he flung himself after the God of Thunder.

Thor was so much in his element of saving the day again that he didn’t notice that Loki hadn’t moved an inch.  
You idiots. You bloody idiots. No one can defeat Thanos. 

He had at least one Infinity Stone, which made him already more powerful than any other being in Asgard. 

The war ship's mouth opened wide and an army of black clothed aliens poured out, some on flying objects, some on insect like looking animals, some on foot, loaded to their teeth (if they had any) with weapons.  
While Asgards defense forces marched out to meet them and a literal war started to break out all around him, Loki just stood there, the wedding band clutched tightly in his hand. As if he was trying to hold on to the happiness he had felt just a few minutes ago. His eyes met the stone eyes of his mother, still smiling down at him, oblivious to what was happening around her.

Then, an attack hit and Frigga exploded in a million pieces in front of his eyes. His cape and hair was flying wildly and several splinters cut his skin. He ducked and forced himself to keep standing, to not be blown away too. After the explosion, the only thing left of his mother was rumble and ashes. That seemed to finalize the plan he had been contemplating in his mind.  
Determined, he put the wedding band away and started running.

\--

‘LOKI, HIDE THE TESSERACT!’ Thor was screaming above the battle sounds. He had been trying to hit the ship with his thunder strikes, force it to crash. He had no idea what this thing was made of, but his thunder didn’t do an aweful lot and by the time Thor managed to land some destructive blows and made parts of the ship smoke, the battle was already in full rage below.

Thor had decided to continue to attack the ship, throwing thunder strikes here and there while keeping an eye on the Spiderkid who did a good job in fighting off the unknown forces. Steve was fighting further back in front of Yggdrasil. Where the Hel was Tony?

As if he had heard Thor’s thoughts, Ironman came speeding through the air, knocking some enemies off their flying devices on the way and landed next to Rogers. Thor could now see that he had brought Steve his shield and handed it to him. Steve looked at it in surprise, then smiled, clapped Tony on the back and took it on just to immediately swing it at their enemies. Thor smiled too. 

Then roared loudly and assembled a concert of thunder and lighting in the air that struck down on his command, knocking out every one of these flying aliens off the sky and left them motionless on the ground.

The wind was beating around his sweaty face as he tried to keep his balance on this enormous ship. His eye scanned the scene desperately for his brother. But Loki was gone. Hopefully he had heard him scream to hide the Tesseract.

‘BEHOLD, YOU POOR SOULS, FOR YOUR SAVIOR HAS COME TO FREE YOU ALL OF YOUR MEANINGLESS EXISTENCE.’ he suddenly heard someone say in an abnormal loud voice, as if he was speaking into a microphone.

An ugly looking, tall sluggish creature had appeared on the spaceship’s open mouth where warrior’s continued to come out.

‘DON’T FIGHT YOUR DESTINY. IT’S NO USE. THANOS HAS COME TO BRING BALANCE TO THE UNIVERSE. THANK HIM FOR HE WILL MAKE AN END TO THE ENDLESS CHAOS RAGING IN THE GALAXY. I’M HONORED TO TELL YOU THAT YOUR LIFES WILL BE TAKEN TO HELP RESTORE THE UNIVERSE’S PEACE.’

What in the nine realms was this idiot talking about? Thor spotted Heimdall on the ground, covered in foreign blood, looking up at the foreign speaker with silent fury in his bright yellow eyes.

Finally, landing another strike, the God of Thunder had finally managed to get through the ship’s thick skin. It finally started to lopside and sink a bit. That should do it for now, he would now take down this idiotic speaker. When the ship was down and Thanos’ announcer dead, Thanos himself was finally forced to appear and Thor could take him down.

‘Thor.’ he suddenly heard a voice in his head. He stopped short, looking around in confusion.

‘Loki?’ he asked. ‘Where are you?’

‘You need to come and help me.’ Loki responded, sounding urgent.

‘Where are you?’ Thor asked, still looking around, trying to spot him.

‘In the castle. In the vaults. I cannot get the tesseract out, you need to help me.’

‘Now? I cannot leave the fighting front now! Why can’t you take it?’ Thor asked, annoyed about this seemingly unreasonable request.

‘Please, Thor.’ he heard Loki’s voice shake and it sent a jolt through his stomach. Loki’s voice never shook like this.

‘Loki, what is happening? Are you hurt?’ he asked alarmed.

‘Please. Come.’ was all he got in return. Then there was only silence.

Thor growled, torn. His immediate instinct was to answer his brother's call for help.  
But there was a tiny voice in the back of his mind, seeping through his thoughts.

‘You know me, brother. As long as I’m Loki, there will always be secrets.’ 

What was he up to?

But this situation surely was too serious to make Loki play games. He needed to trust his brother. He was his husband now, after all.  
With a mighty jump, Thor flew over the fighting, towards the castle.

He heard faintly Tony calling after him.

‘I WILL BE BACK.’ he shouted over his shoulder, hoping they would hear him.

His thoughts racing as much as his heard, he entered the castle.

\---

The fighting hadn’t reached the castle yet and all the men and gods were outside fighting, so the halls were almost eary with silence and emptiness and Thor could run towards the treasure voults quickly.

His steps echoing from the high ceilings, he marched along the great accumulations of his father, not giving any a glance. A light blue shimmer told him what would await him after the next turn.

Thor’s breath caught in his throat as he saw the tesseract shining in its perfect royal blue on a display pillar. On its feet lay a lean figure, his body covered in silver and green, a long blood trail almost reaching Thor’s feet.

‘Loki.’ Thor said in shock, darting forward to help his brother.

Hearing his name, Loki’s head jerked a bit upwards and he opened his eyes with a grimace.  
‘Thor. You came.’ he breathed relieved, followed by a nasty sounding cough. 

‘What happened?’ Thor asked, his eye panickly searching for the wound that caused the heavy blood flow.

But Loki only shook his head. ‘No time. Come here.’ he said, holding up his arms, signaling Thor we wanted to hold his hands.  
Immediately Thor crouched down, eagerly reaching out to Loki in return, wanting to hold him.

As soon as Loki’s white fingers touched Thor’s skin, everything happened at once.  
Where just a second ago Thor had seen the lean fingers of his brother closing around his wrists, there were now two large snakes, their long wide mouths around Thor’s wrists, as if they were trying to bite his hands off of him.

Thor grimaced in shock, trying to shake them off. But they had already bit themselves deep in Thor’s flesh and had hit the bones.  
As soon as that happened, the snakes seemed to turn into stone, their green skin turning to grey, their yellow eyes becoming dead black holes. The slithering bodies of the animals turned into thick, heavy clinking chains that seemed to vanish in the ground next to the tesseract, being so short that Thor couldn’t stand up anymore and was forced to kneel.

He looked around, frantically, but Loki’s body had vanished. As had the blood.

Instead, a deep chuckle filled the treasure hall and the God of Mischief appeared around the corner, a winning smile on his face.  
‘I knew you would come.’ he said.

‘What is the meaning of this, Loki?’ Thor growled, his only eye fixating his brother in an angry stare.

‘I’m sorry Thor, I really am. But you would be only in my way.’ Loki said.

‘In your way doing what?’ Thor asked darkly.

‘Giving Thanos what he came for.’ Loki said, as if that should be obvious, turning towards the tesseract.

Thor growled in outrage, trying with all his strength to break free of these chains. But they wouldn’t move. On the contrary, it seemed the more Thor tried to break free, the deeper they buried themselves in his flesh. He bit his lip in pain.

He watched in rising panic as Loki picked up the tesseract, turning it slowly in his hand, admiring its beauty. His very eyes seemed to shine blue.

‘Loki.’ Thor breathed. ‘Please. Don’t do this. What will you gain from this?’ 

Loki’s eyes wandered towards Thor, his expression suddenly changing. ‘Nothing.’ he said calmly. He reached out his free hand and slowly ran his fingers down Thor’s cheek. Thor held still, his eye burning through Loki’s, searching for an explanation. But Loki seemed to not really see him. ‘Believe it or not. I will not gain a single thing.’ he said, his voice sounding far away.

‘Then why are you doing this?’ Thor asked, not understanding.

But Loki just kept looking at his husband, crouching in pain, shaking with fury at this betrayal. Then, he retreated his hand slowly, as if he had to force himself to do it.

Eventually snapping out of his thoughts, his face displayed mischievious grin again. ‘You know, we should really enhance the guards training for these vaults.’ Loki said, in a conversational tone. ‘They should know what they guard. Don’t you think? Otherwise…’  
He put his hand behind his back as he reached for something. When his hand reappeared, he was holding apparently a second tesseract in his hand.  
‘… someone could just exchange a real treasure for a fake one and no one would ever notice. Did you know the infinity gauntlet is fake, too?’  
Loki added, nodding towards a big golden hand on the far end of the hall.

But Thor’s eye had grown wide as it went back and forth between the two blue shining stones in Loki’s hands.  
‘Which one is the real one?’ he asked.

‘Who knows?’ Loki replied, holding them in front of his chest, a look of amusement on his face.

Then, they suddenly disappeared.

‘Oh, no. Gone. Ah, well.’ Loki sighed,, then winked at Thor and turned around to walk away.

‘LOKI!’ Thor roared, his eyes lighting up bright blue, lighting shooting down like a tornado. The ground shook as the God of Thunder used all his might to break those magic chains. But not even those powers seemed to impress Loki’s magic.

Loki turned around, grinning. ‘Quite impressive, aren't they? I did my homework.’ And with that he left a hurt and raging Thor behind.


	5. Three is a Charm

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year peeps!   
> Another chapter is here, this time it is only a 'then' because we have a lot to catch up on from the past. Be prepared, this is a gruesome and sad one. I apologise in advance! The next chapters will be more light hearted again!  
> Well, enjoy if you can .>.<.

####  \- Then - 

‘I’m sorry.’ Was the last thing he heard before he heard Loki closing the vault doors and vanished. It was so fleeting and softly spoken that he initially thought he had imagined it.

What was the meaning of this? What was Loki up to? Why did he have two tesseracts?   
Thor hated being so helpless, chained like a wild animal. Several times he tried to break those damn magic chains again, but all he accomplished was the snakes driving their stone mouths deeper in the God’s flesh and he moaned in pain after several failed attempts.

His vision started to get blurry and his breathing shallow. He wondered if Loki had poisoned the snake’s mouths and cursed himself for being so naïve, yet again, to think Loki would not betray him anymore like this.  
As the noise of war ruttled the pillars and ceiling, his consciousness started fading and he leaned his head against the cold stone wall, closing his eye against his will.

He had no idea how long he was sitting there like this, but it could not have been long. He startled out of his drowsiness when he felt a strong grip on his shoulders, pulling him forward.

‘Thor. Thor! Wake up!’ he heard a pressing familiar voice and he looked up, he recognised Heimdall's endless yellow eyes.

‘Heimdall.’ he breathed, smiling in relief.

‘Mr Thor, are you alright?’ another, much higher voice asked. Thor turned and saw the Spider kid looking at him with concern.

‘I’m alright, do not worry. I just cannot get these chains off.’ he added to Heimdall.

The Seer had already examined the chains with a deep frown, and Thor thought to see annoyance on his face. ‘Loki.’ he breathed, apparently to himself. ‘You thief. These are mine.’

‘Yours? Your chains?’ Thor asked bewildered.

‘Yes. Well, the magic part certainly isn’t. Wait.’ Heimdall said absentmindedly, touching the chains at several places, as if he was looking for something.

‘Hey Mr Thor, did you know that he can see everything?’ Peter said excitedly, pointing at Heimdall. ‘He saw you going into the vault and Loki tricking you. Without being here. He just… sees. Isn’t that awesome?’

‘It really is, kid. And I was never gladder that he has that gift.’ Thor managed to smile.

A click could be heard and the chains dropped livelessly to the ground. Thor held up his hands. The snake rings were still around his wrists, full of his own blood. 

‘Those I do not know how to remove.’ Heimdall said. ‘But at least you are free.’

‘Thank you, my friend.’ Thor said, getting to his feet with a groan. Heimdall and Peter quickly helped to heave him up on each side and together they made for the exit.  
‘How is the fight going?’ Thor asked. His feet felt weirdly wobbily, as if they were made out of jelly.

‘Not too good to tell the truth. But we are not defeated yet.’ Heimdall responded.

‘Nor will we ever be. I will show this Thanos what the Aeris are made of.’ Thor said, his voice sounding much weaker than he wanted to sound.  
‘Can you see Loki?’ he asked Heimdall.

But Heimdall shook his head. ‘He veils himself from my view. He has learned this trick a long time ago.’

‘Then how could you see what he did to Thor?’ Peter asked.

Heimdall's look grew concerned. ‘He did not veil that. I think he wanted me to find you.’ he said to Thor.

‘We need to find him. Find out what he is up to.’ Thor breathed, his voice sounding even weaker than before. 

‘Are you ok, Mr Thor?’ Peter asked warily.

‘It’s the wrist chains.’ Heimdall said. ‘They suck out your energy, while putting poison back in.’  
‘I know.’ Thor groaned. ‘But it takes more then two pathetic bracelets to bring down the Mighty Thor.’ he said stubbornly and pressed on, still partially held up by his two friends.

As they exited the castle from a broken down wall, the war noise was almost unbearable. Thor could see his people fighting bravely, however he saw way less of them than when the battle had begun.   
The amount of unmoving bodies scattered everywhere was unnerving, and smoke and destruction filled Thor’s vision. He tried to make out Stark or Rogers, but couldn't find them anywhere.

The big spaceship had broken down, he noticed with satisfaction, but its belly still did not seem to be completely empty of disgusting creatures gushing out.  
And then he saw a big figure appear on top of the broken spaceship. Its purple muscles stretching, standing proud and tall, Thor noticed something golden on his right hand glistening.

‘AESIR!’ he heard him say. His voice was strangely calm, almost tender. But at the same time he made his voice heard over all of Asgard.

‘This is Thanos.’ Heimdall said expressionless. Thor had guessed as much.

‘I have come to take what is mine. The Jewel of Odin’s treasure room, you call it. But your Allfather is long gone, and you poor creatures do not know how to make use of the tesseract. I offer you now, hand me over the artifact and we will leave in peace. Eventually only half of you will die. But refuse, and I will end each and every single one of your worthless lifes. Who speaks for you? Where is the Mighty Thor?’ Thanos asked, and Thor thought he heard mockery at the end.

Anger flared up in him and banned his light headedness for a moment. He shook Peter’s and Heimdalls hands off and was just about to answer the call, when he suddenly heard his own voice roar: ‘I’M HERE.’  
He whirled around confused, trying to make out where the voice was coming from.

It was then he saw Asgards still intact golden gates open and out marched in shining armor… Thor. His blood red cloak floating like velvet, a fierce blue eye glistening out of his winged helmet, a heavy object in one of his broad fists.

‘No.’ Thor breathed in understanding as he watched himself swinging Mjölnir, shining strangely blue, and the remainder of the Asgardian army assemble behind him.

‘I am Thor Odinson.’ he heard his clone say. ‘And this is as far as you will come, Thanos the Mad Titan. Asgard has watched over the Tesseract for eternities and defended it from much greater threads than you. Until our last breath we will fight you.’

Thanos shrugged, unimpressed. ‘That can be done.’  
The titan raised his golden gloved hand, a single purple stone glistening on the gauntlet. ‘Do you know what this is, Mighty Thor? This stone has the power to wipe out your beloved Asgard in minutes if I want it to.’

‘And do you know what this is?’ the clone Thor asked in return, raising his hammer high above his head. Finally Thor could see what the blue shimmer was. A bright blue shining stone was set in Mjölnir’s hilt, lighting up the entire weapon.

‘He took the Space Stone out of the Tesseract.’ Thor said in disbelief, turning to Heimdall as if he was looking for confirmation.

Heimdall nodded slowly and glanced at Thor, looking as helpless as Thor felt in that moment.

‘We need to stop him.’ Thor urged his friend. ‘We need to crash the scene.’

‘And guarantee the death of your husband?’ Heimdall asked back. ‘Exposing Loki now won’t help him or any of us at that moment. Wait.’ Heimdall said and lay a calming hand on Thor’s shoulder.  
Thor wanted to contradict, to go and help Loki. But Heimdalls grip was firm and the God of Thunder had to agree that he had no idea how to help him, in his state, at that moment. Grinding his teeth, he stayed put.

Asgard’s army roared battle cries and stomped their armored feet on the ground as thunder stroke down on Mjölnir, which seemed to spark with electricity and the power of the Space Stone.

Thanos grinned. ‘Finally gotten around to use it, have you? It won’t do you much good though, boy. You don’t know how to use it. The mere fact that you can even hold it in your weapon is a miracle by itself. You don’t know how to fight with it.’ Thanos said condescending.

But fake Thor just laughed and responded in even more thunder encircling him, creating a strange wind that made his heavy cloak whirl up. ‘Why don’t you just find out how much I cannot wield its power?’ he asked provocatively.

Thanos turned his gloved hand into a fist. ‘You have been warned.’ And he shot down from the Sanctuary II towards the clone Thor. An ear shattering crash cut through the air followed by a bright light explosion and the moment Thor could see again he saw Thanos’ outreached gauntlet, targeted at his double’s throat and fake Thor blocking him with his hammer.

This had been the start of another battle round and the rest of Asgard’s army was charging at the foreign invaders once more. And soon the clinking of metal and battle cries could be heard again while Thanos and clone Thor were battling in their midst, attacking and blocking each other.

Thor held his breath as the strikes fell and for a while it looked like neither the purple titan nor clone Thor were getting the upper hand. He was impressed watching himself fight. Thor had always been an immensely strong fighter. But he had never been fast. This Thor however was fast and cunning, moving like a snake, flying around the titan like a hawk speeding down on its prey, landing every so often painful hits, however never a fatal blow.

It was clear to see that Thanos’ power stone was way stronger in its destructive power, but the Space Stone had other perks that the Power Stone did not possess and where it lacked in strength, fake Thor could instead teleport himself to confuse Thanos, duplicate himself, even use telekinesis to divert the titan’s attacks and steer them away from him or even back to Thanos himself.

But then, Thor’s clone loaded Mjönlir with all the thunder he could summon, and threw it with all his might towards Thanos. The Infinity Stone seemed to steer the rotating hammer around the blocking attacks from Thanos, aiming directly for the titans head. In the last moment, however, Thanos blocked the final strike with the golden gauntlet and the hammer rebounded as if it was a toy.

Before Thor’s imposter could call his weapon back, the mad titan was on him. His thick golden gloved fingers closing around his neck and holding him up.

Clone Thor tried to struggle free, but to no avail. Thanos grinned. ‘I’m impressed, Thor Odinson. I really am. You understand the Stone better than I thought, I must admit that. But play time is over now. I will, for the last time, offer you a the choice.’ As he talked, in his unnerving calm voice, he tightened his grip around Thor’s neck, who in response gargled and coughed. The parts of his face visible below his helmet started to turn an alarming shade of purple and blue.

Thor could barely watch this anymore. ‘Heimdall.’ he whispered urgently.

‘Give up the Space Stone. Or give up your life.’

Thor’s imposter tried to speak, but was unable to form words. Thanos loosened his grip a little bit and Thor could hear his clone cough. ‘I yield. You win. The stone is yours.’

‘Smart boy.’ Thanos smiled satisfied, and let go of his neck immediately. Clone Thor fell to the ground like a puppet, struggling to get back on all fours and holding his neck while he coughed violently towards the ground.

The purple titan walked towards where Mjölnir had crashed to the ground, and picked up the hammer with his gauntlet as if it was made of feathers. He turned the sacred weapon, seemingly admiring its craft, his eyes finally resting hungrily on the blue stone.

Just as he wanted to pick out the Infinity stone, the hammer suddenly started to vibrate, and the stone started shining even brighter. Thanos tried to hold on tight to the weapon, but Mjölnir broke free, its drive so strong that he had slid the gauntlet right off Thanos’ hand and it flew right back to its owner who had outstretched his hand to call it back to him.

Mjölnir found fake Thor’s hand, his fingers closing around its hilt, the golden glove also still holding on to it. Thor’s breath stopped as he watched his clone smile mischievously as he was slowly getting back on his feet again.  
The remaining eye was glinting out of the darkness of the winged helmet as he was examining his catch, and grinning victoriously to a stunned Thanos, before sliding his right hand into the Infinity gauntlet.

The reaction was imminent. A sort of pressure wave erupted and shook the ground underneath Thor's feet. Stones and little pebbles started flying up and around the clone Thor as he wielded one Infinity Stone with the gauntlet and another in the hammer he was holding in his other hand. A few remainders of what had once been his scarlet cloak was floating in the weird aura that surrounded the wielder.

Thor’s imposter raised the gauntlet, trying to summon its power, when his entire body seemed to freeze. Thor frowned, trying to understand what was happening. It seemed like his clone couldn’t move at all anymore. He heard Thanos chuckle and turned towards him.

‘Close, boy. Very close. I underestimated you.’ he said, walking towards him. ‘But you see, here is the thing. The stones are not loyal, they don’t listen to anyone. The gauntlet however.’, he had now reached his competitor, ‘was especially made for me. It does, in fact, listen to me.’   
He looked amused at the frozen Thor before taking the hammer out of his hand, looking at it again closely.   
‘And here is the other thing.’ he continued, like a teacher who tries to explain something to a student. ‘The war hammer Mjölnir was one of its kind. Unbelievably powerful, forged out of the heart of a dying star, and wielded only by the worthy. Of course, since Odin died, this add-on had been reversed. I do know however, that Mjölnir has been destroyed by Hela before Ragnarök. So, this thing here is an imposter. A very well made, convincing imposter. But an imposter nevertheless. As are you, trickster.’

And with these words, he took out the blue gem of the hammer, and then crushed the weapon between his massive finger as if it had been made of no more than glass. Then he opened his palm and the infinity gauntlet slipped easily off fake Thor's hand and back on the titan’s fingers.

The moment the gauntlet had left his hand, the imposter seemed to unfreeze again and fell on his knees.

Thanos payed him no heed. The Space Stone seemed tiny in these massive purple hands as Thanos added it to his gauntlet. Closing his eyes, he had expected the same pressure wave run through him as it did with fake Thor just a moment ago. But nothing happened. It took Thanos only a second before he sighed in frustration. ‘Of course.’ he said. ‘Third time’s a charm, isn’t it?’ 

Fake Thor has struggled back to his feet, two large daggers had appeared in his fists and he charged at the titan with a loud cry. But Thanos was angry now. ‘Ah, now those are real, aren’t they? But too little too late, trickster.’ he said and shot some energy blasts out of his glove towards the attacker. Fake Thor managed to dodge and block several attacks. But the wounds of the fight and the power that had raged through him as he had been holding two Infinity Stones had taken its toll and Thor could see that his movements were way slower now and he stumbled several times.

That was why he was not able to block Thanos’ final strike. The Mad Titan had charged at his foe again, the gauntlet outstretched in a straight line, the golden glove broke through the imposter’s chest like a knife cutting through butter.

It happened so fast, so seamless, that Thor was sure his eye betrayed him. That what he saw could not actually just have happened. 

He saw himself gasp in surprise more than in pain. 

‘There. Right through that heart you always claim to not have.’ Thanos said casually before pulling his hand back out of his opponent. The colden glove was dripping with blood.

Thor’s clone fell to his knees, his chin falling on his chest, the winged helmet falling off the warrior’s head. With some loud clinking the helmet bounced a few feet before laying still. The imposter's face was finally revealed. But instead of Thor's short blonde hair there were black thick curls falling around a sticky, bloody pale face.

Loki smiled. ‘Well. I might have one after all.’ he breathed barely hearable while he tried clumsily to cover the gaping hole in his chest, which was a gushing scarlet mess.

Hearing Loki’s broken voice was what put Thor back into his body, made him realize what had just happened. 

‘You cannot help him anymore Mr Thor.’ he heard Peter’s scared voice, felt Heimdalls force on his shoulders, but it were the godsforsaken snake chains that held him in place.

They had started to dive themselves deeper into his flesh again, sucking the rising energy fueled by his anger and pain right out of his trembling body again. Thor was not fooled, he had seen the slight hand movement the dying Loki had made in his direction and knew Loki had still control over them, knew Thor was watching the scene and forced him into helplessness.

Thanos grabbed the coughing Loki around his neck and lifted the defenseless body up to inspect the eye patch he was still wearing.  
With one nail of his broad fingers he lifted it and threw it away. Below surfaced Loki’s eye, shining an unnatural blue.

‘You always thought yourself so much smarter than anyone else. That has always been your weak point.’ Thanos said as he tilted his head and dived his index finger mercilessly into Loki’s eyeball to recover the the Stone.

Loki was already feeling too little anymore to scream. It took Thanos only a moment to resurface his finger, the beautiful true Space Stone sparkling on its tip.

The blue light had been the last thing that had given Loki and life. With the stone gone, his eyes closed and Thanos threw him away like some garbage he didn’t need anymore. 

Loki flew towards where Thor was forced to hide. Thor could barely look at him.

‘Loki.’ he whimpered.

Loki’s remaining eye opened a little and a last smile appeared on his thin lips. ‘Do not worry, brother. The sun will shine on us again.’ he said. Then he was gone.

Thor wanted to scream, wanted to attack, wanted to do something. Anything. He felt as if he had just been pushed off a high rise building. And was falling. Endlessly falling. Then a bright blue light seemed to catch him mid fall. 

And he didn’t see anything anymore. 

He was gone.


	6. Frost on Quicksand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here I am again with a new chapter :)! I had some time and could finish this one rather quick.
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts in the comments, I really value every kind of feedback <3!  
> And now, enjoy!

####  \- Timeless - 

Every breath felt like ashes in his mouth as his tired feet searched the way forward. Cautiously, from stone to stone. Every next move needed to be first thought of. Or he might miss the next stone. He might slip. And fall into the hot desert sand, which, Loki was sure, would swallow him in an instant.   
The sun shone hot and mercilessly on his neck as he marched slowly on, breathing in and out in one rhythm with his movements.

Swallowing this dry air was painful, his long black air clung in sweaty strands around his blue face. He tried to force himself to only look down and not have his red eyes exposed to the bright surroundings too much.

He was almost there. In the distance, in this desert of Hel, he saw a tall, old tower rising up, flickering in the heat.  
Loki was sure that this tower could not yet be Eljudnir, Hela’s hall of the dead, but maybe he could at least rest in its shade, regain some energy.

As he came close enough however, he noticed that the tower was actually an old lighthouse, its light circling uselessly on the top. And there stood a lean figure, leaning against its crumbly stone.

‘You know what the one thing is that I love about this job?’ The figure asked the approaching Loki.

The god came to a stand, his heaving chest glistening with sweat.

‘They all laugh down at you. Feel so bloody entitled living up on the sunny side of Yggdrasil, and spitting down on Nilfheim, which sits so deep in the darkest corner of Yggdrasil’s roots, it is not worth anyone’s care or attention. But eventually death gets them all. And they come here, their privileged and ignorant faces washed off its entitlement, in its place utter fear and pain. It is the sweetest sight there is. Makes almost up for the curse of living here.’

Loki wanted to respond, but he couldn’t find his voice through the heavy breaths he had to draw.

Hela rolled her eyes. ‘Jotuns.’ she muttered, held up a finger and moving it slowly to one side.

On this command, the sun behind Loki moved further west, so that the shade the lighthouse cast was now on him. The god could feel instant relief.  
‘I would say thank you. But you chose this world for me to wander in to begin with.’ Loki said, finally able to speak.

‘I did not choose anything. Nilfheim does. I mean, this is hell for a reason isn’t it. Brother mine.’ Hela smiled viciously.

His red eyes worked better in the shade and he could see Odin’s daughter clearer now. 

Hela Odinsdottir stood there leaning, her long black hair whirling in the desert wind, her one black eye fixated on the latest addition to her world. The other eye was milky, sitting in a half weathered face. It seemed half of Hela’s body was decaying while the other part was as beautiful and fierce as he remembered. Loki wondered if the only thing keeping this half dead body together was the tight long black dress she was wearing.

‘You paid your price.’ Loki remarked.

‘I did.’ she said.

They took each other in for another few moments.

‘Did you really think you could defeat Thanos like that?’ Hela then broke the silence.

‘Well, it was worth a shot. Can’t say I don’t feel a bit stupid now for failing so miserably.’ Loki admitted.

‘This would not have happened if you didn’t kill me.’ Hela continued.

‘We didn’t kill you. Your own arrogance did.’ Loki remarked.

‘The three of us could have defeated that purple monster.’

‘Is it ‘us’ now? One big happy family? I didn’t catch that attitude the last time we met.’ 

Hela tilted her head. ‘We are not so different, you know. You and I.’

‘I noticed.’ Loki said hesitantly. ‘Is Odin here?’ 

Hela grinned. ‘Not far. Alone I am not powerful enough to reach him. But together…’ Her grin faded again and her stare grew intense, as if she was looking right through him. ‘You are not interested.’

‘No.’ 

‘Your hate for Odin has subsided. Why?’

‘What I have painfully come to understand about hate is…’ Loki said slowly, as if he had just realized this now. ‘You think you punish the person it is directed towards, when in truth the only person you punish is yourself.’

Hela snorted and let out an ugly laugh. ‘Gods, I thought you sounded like Odin before. Now I see what an utter fool I was. You are Frigga all over again. Which makes you very boring.’

But Loki’s chest seemed to swell at her words. ‘Is she…?’ he started.

‘Oh, no. The saint Frigga is in Valhalla, probably having a grand time drinking mead and enjoying being finally rid of her dreadful husband.’

Loki doubted this.   
‘Was this an ocean once?’ he asked instead, looking around this wasteland, and then pointing at the lighthouse.

‘Once.’ Hela nodded. ‘But it still serves its purpose. Just now it is not ships it guides, but lost souls.’

‘Where is Helheim?’

‘Quite a while to go.’ Hela grinned.

Loki sighed, taking his black sleeveless tunic and pulled at it repeatedly to get some air between the cloth and his sweaty skin.  
Some dark blue runes and ancient shapes that were engraved in his skin peeked out of his clothes. Loki had no idea what they meant.

‘You came with a request.’ Hela said. It wasn’t a question.

‘I did.’

‘But it is not to find and punish Odin.’

‘No.’

‘Then what is it?’

‘I need to go back and help Thor.’

Hela didn’t respond right away. Her eyes brushed over Loki’s left hand, her healthy eye lingering for a moment on the ring tattoo in Loki’s finger.  
‘That’s beyond my powers.’ she finally said.

‘That’s a lie.’

‘It comes at a cost.’

‘I am aware.’

‘You might find bearing the consequences harder than only knowing about them.’

‘That is not your problem is it?’

‘Why should I help you?’

‘Because I can help you in return.’

‘What help could I need that you could provide me, the goddess of death?’ Hela asked, her chin rising arrogantly.

‘I can free Jörmungandr.’ Loki said, watching the half dead woman’s face closely.

She seemed to stiffen at the sound of the name.

‘One of your sons is already dead.’ Loki continued, thinking of the big black wolf the Hulk had thrown off Asgard’s edge. ‘But Jörmungandr is still alive and can be summoned.’

‘Jörmungandr has vowed to kill all the gods for binding him down. You are one of them, he will eat you the moment his fangs are free.’ Hela said, but Loki could see the change in her tone of voice.

He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. ‘That is the risk I have to take. If I get eaten, well, then we will meet here again and you can laugh at me for being a fool once again.’

Hela had started to move and circled her adopted brother with a sharp narrow eye, trying to look through this proposition, trying to find the catch.  
‘The World Serpent dwells at the very bottom of the deepest point of Midgard’s oceans. How do you propose to go down there and make him spit out its own tail?’ she asked sharply.

‘Does it matter?’ Loki asked back in a light voice. He knew he had her.

‘I don’t trust you, trickster.’

‘And I don’t trust you. But this isn’t about trust. This is about working together for our own interests.’

Loki’s red eyes followed Hela’s movements as she continued to circle him, contemplating. ‘I don’t trust you.’ she repeated. ‘But I trust this.’ She gestured to Loki’s tattoo. ‘I hate Thor. But he deserves Asgards throne a lot more than Odin ever did. Not sure about you, though.’ she added.

Loki chuckled. ‘I’m not sure about me either.’

The moment the goddess had made her decision, her dead hand shot out and grabbed Loki’s wrist. It felt like a rotten tree root was wrapping around him.  
Loki instantly felt the change. His chest started hurting, his nose bleeding, his eyes watering.

‘You shall be revived for now, Loki, Agent of Chaos. Help that godforsaken brother of ours, help defeat Thanos and free my son. If you succeed, your life shall be yours again. If not…’ she came closer now and whispered in his ear which sent goosebumps down his spine. ‘I have reserved a nice uncomfortable place in Helheim for you, which will make this desert seem like a luxury getaway.’

Then she stepped back again and released the panting Loki.  
‘The cost’, she continued, staring down at the Jotun who was bent over, clutching his chest. ‘for a second chance at life is this: In the wounds that have taken your prior life you shall suffer all the pain that you have ever inflicted on others. Through your lies, your betrayals, through your ignorance and egocentrism. You will suffer what you did to others to redeem your past life.’

The God of Mischief was on his knees by now, trying his hardest not to scream out in pain. ‘What-… about…. the-… cure…?’ he finally managed to stammer.

‘There is no cure. Only redemption and repentance will bring you ease.’

The light of the lighthouse suddenly stopped to circle and halted on the crouched down Loki, encircling him in its bright light.  
And before Loki could say anything else, he was gone.

As he felt his body being pulled violently upwards, he heard his sister’s voice in his head. 'I knew Thanos from a long time ago. Give him hell, and tell him: Hela sends her regards.’


End file.
